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Hiding from Good and Evil
Soren Kragh-Jacobsen's The Island on Bird Street
Andrew J Horton
Some of the most poignant and moving stories from the years of World War II are those of how simple honest people, in the midst of all the terror and brutality, managed to cling on to moral decency, hope and faith in humanity. Following on in this much-loved vein, the Danish director of children's films Soren Kragh-Jacobsen has created The Island on Bird Street (UK, Germany, Denmark, Norway, 1997), based on an autobiographical novel about a young Jewish boy surviving against the odds.
Alex lives with his father Stefan and his Uncle Boruch in the Warsaw ghetto (recreated atmospherically with on-location filming in Wroclaw). Like any lad of his age, Alex can't quite remove the need for fun and games from his life. Playing usually centres around a derelict tenement block located on Bird Street, and he is always with his pet mouse.
His elders do not approve of his Bird Street adventures and not just because of the dangers of falling masonry. Alex, being incapable of doing hard labour, lives under the threat of being carted off to a concentration camp if he doesn't stay permanently hidden out of sight. After skilfully dodging the Germans though a number of raids on the ghetto, the whole family is caught in one final round-up to close the ghetto down. A pre-arranged plan to escape is bodged and Boruch is killed and Stefan caught, but Alex makes it back to his island.
It all turns nasty
Once the ghetto is closed down and shut off, its previous intimacy is turned to life and death rivalry as the last few stragglers missed by the Germans battle it out for food, water and a safe hiding place. Even his beloved mouse dies, although I should point out, in case sensitive Kinoeye readers are concerned, that the film's closing credits make it clear that no animals were harmed in the film's production.
Alex is slow to adapt to his new environment, but eventually he makes his home in an eyrie-like hide-out with its own water supply. From there he can look out across to the Polish side of the city, at everyday life, at people coming and going as if life was normal, and at a young Polish girl of about his age.
Alex, through two Poles whose life he saves, manages to get to the Polish side and meet the girl he watches from afar. The girl offers to help him and persuades her mother to take Alex with them when they move to the relative safety of the countryside. Alex, though, refuses. Despite the long months which have passed, he still believes his father will come back and, as previously planned, meet him at Bird Street.
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